Good psychological horror games?
- Thread starter WayOutThere
- Start date
Okay, to the OP:
I have some good news. If you want psychological horror try the below freeware game. Anything done by Yahtzee in his "Dafoe" series (7 Days a Skeptic, etc..) is liable to be good but White Chamber is something of a standout for the psychological horror adventure game genere (and trust me when I say psychological).
http://www.studiotrophis.com/
Not long, but you'll probably get a bit of enjoyment out of it (I've posted the link and recommendation here before).
I also have some "bad" news. Your best bet to find true psycological horror games is largely going to be to search for either independant productions (some fairly old) like the above, or to go looking around used game bins, abandonware sites, and the like. The reason being is that psychological horror as a genere is pretty much dead. At one time there was a ton of games all about "creepy" or "off" settings without being over the top "OMG" horror all the time, but in recent years it's died out. "Sanitarium", "I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream", and even "Dark Seed" (2 games) are all good, if dated examples.
Today pretty much all horror games are pretty over the top, and don't do "unsettling" as much as flat out "horrifying" in a very in your face fashion. There is nothing unsubtle or understated about the atmosphere in "Dead Space", Yahtzee called it the "USS Kill Beast Buffet" for a reason. In many other games your basically walking around waste deep and gore and corpses with stuff popping out to kill you every 15 seconds. This is true of everything including Silent Hill (which didn't impress you much, though I'm not sure which one you played).
Still for games that are out there the closest your going to come (and I recommend this by the psychological designation, not specifically firing a shotgun of horror games) are:
#1: Rule Of Rose, this game (contrary to what some have said) DOES make sense. Also once you figure it out you'll probably know why I said I considered the relationship with the dog in this game one of the most powerful person-animal relationships in a video game.
#2: I recommend "Silent Hill IV: The Room". Despite comments about your experiences with the series, this game is the "off child" of the bunch which was originally not developed as a Silent Hill game but later inserted into the series. It's the game that a lot of serious hard core Silent Hill nerds dislike because it was so differant.
It also did surrealistic horror better than anything I've seen so far in a game. Your playing a desperate guy trapped in his apartment for days who is running out of food who winds up basically trying to escape by crawling through holes in the wall into all kinds of truely messed up dreamscape enviroments. It's... differant. Though the mechanics for exorcising the ghosts do become a bit annoying.
#3: Fatal Frame is very atmospheric, and the second one (which my copy of is missing) is perhaps the best overall. However for psychological horror I recommend the third one as it's a bit differant from the others taking place under a veneer of normality with characters from the first two games touching base in an apartment they share. The first two are pretty much a lot of creepy rooms, shock moments, and ghost busting with a camera. The third one was not as popular as the first two it seemed, BUT it also broke that format and tried to go in a slightly differant direction than "alone and surrounded by overwhelming evil coming out of everywhere"!.
For the record I never did beat the first game (which I'm guessing is the one you played) as I couldn't figure out where to go in the Demon Tag chapter despite directions. I had that bloody respawning ghost showing up going "oh my eyes! oh my eyes!" being more annoying that anything while I looked for the mask. Dusted the bloody thing what was probably a hundred times and the figure "enough of this". So chances are I share your pain.
Not much new here, but basically the "current gen" of games has little in the way of horror titles. With the specter of censorship everywhere (whether you agree with me on it or not) it seems people just aren't risking making them or bringing them to the US. What ones there are, basically come down to a variation of "over the top alien/zombie shooting gallery".
There are good "monster bashing" games, some with very interesting atmosphere, but most are very direct as opposed to cereberal or psychological. Not much in the way of mystery or "veiled malevolence" everything is quite obviously malevolent in the most cheezy and over the top way for the most part. Even Condemned is pretty straightforward, though it does have a psychological horror element where they guy communes (literally) with his inner demon of alchoholism and later kills it in a bar fight (I kid you not).
I have some good news. If you want psychological horror try the below freeware game. Anything done by Yahtzee in his "Dafoe" series (7 Days a Skeptic, etc..) is liable to be good but White Chamber is something of a standout for the psychological horror adventure game genere (and trust me when I say psychological).
http://www.studiotrophis.com/
Not long, but you'll probably get a bit of enjoyment out of it (I've posted the link and recommendation here before).
I also have some "bad" news. Your best bet to find true psycological horror games is largely going to be to search for either independant productions (some fairly old) like the above, or to go looking around used game bins, abandonware sites, and the like. The reason being is that psychological horror as a genere is pretty much dead. At one time there was a ton of games all about "creepy" or "off" settings without being over the top "OMG" horror all the time, but in recent years it's died out. "Sanitarium", "I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream", and even "Dark Seed" (2 games) are all good, if dated examples.
Today pretty much all horror games are pretty over the top, and don't do "unsettling" as much as flat out "horrifying" in a very in your face fashion. There is nothing unsubtle or understated about the atmosphere in "Dead Space", Yahtzee called it the "USS Kill Beast Buffet" for a reason. In many other games your basically walking around waste deep and gore and corpses with stuff popping out to kill you every 15 seconds. This is true of everything including Silent Hill (which didn't impress you much, though I'm not sure which one you played).
Still for games that are out there the closest your going to come (and I recommend this by the psychological designation, not specifically firing a shotgun of horror games) are:
#1: Rule Of Rose, this game (contrary to what some have said) DOES make sense. Also once you figure it out you'll probably know why I said I considered the relationship with the dog in this game one of the most powerful person-animal relationships in a video game.
#2: I recommend "Silent Hill IV: The Room". Despite comments about your experiences with the series, this game is the "off child" of the bunch which was originally not developed as a Silent Hill game but later inserted into the series. It's the game that a lot of serious hard core Silent Hill nerds dislike because it was so differant.
It also did surrealistic horror better than anything I've seen so far in a game. Your playing a desperate guy trapped in his apartment for days who is running out of food who winds up basically trying to escape by crawling through holes in the wall into all kinds of truely messed up dreamscape enviroments. It's... differant. Though the mechanics for exorcising the ghosts do become a bit annoying.
#3: Fatal Frame is very atmospheric, and the second one (which my copy of is missing) is perhaps the best overall. However for psychological horror I recommend the third one as it's a bit differant from the others taking place under a veneer of normality with characters from the first two games touching base in an apartment they share. The first two are pretty much a lot of creepy rooms, shock moments, and ghost busting with a camera. The third one was not as popular as the first two it seemed, BUT it also broke that format and tried to go in a slightly differant direction than "alone and surrounded by overwhelming evil coming out of everywhere"!.
For the record I never did beat the first game (which I'm guessing is the one you played) as I couldn't figure out where to go in the Demon Tag chapter despite directions. I had that bloody respawning ghost showing up going "oh my eyes! oh my eyes!" being more annoying that anything while I looked for the mask. Dusted the bloody thing what was probably a hundred times and the figure "enough of this". So chances are I share your pain.
Not much new here, but basically the "current gen" of games has little in the way of horror titles. With the specter of censorship everywhere (whether you agree with me on it or not) it seems people just aren't risking making them or bringing them to the US. What ones there are, basically come down to a variation of "over the top alien/zombie shooting gallery".
There are good "monster bashing" games, some with very interesting atmosphere, but most are very direct as opposed to cereberal or psychological. Not much in the way of mystery or "veiled malevolence" everything is quite obviously malevolent in the most cheezy and over the top way for the most part. Even Condemned is pretty straightforward, though it does have a psychological horror element where they guy communes (literally) with his inner demon of alchoholism and later kills it in a bar fight (I kid you not).
Wow, I've not played most of these games mentioned so far in this thread but I do know what I will be doing for the next few weeks. Chasing all these hidden gems up! I'm a fan of both 'BOO!' type and 'I HAVE VOICES IN MY HEAD!!' type games so hopefully I will find some real quaility games for the suggestions above.
I also think games are a lot like films, best watched/played in the dark by oneself. The feeling that the setting creates can only highten the fear/intensity of a good game. Trying to play Silent Hill/Fatal Frame in the middle of the day with sunlight streaming on your monitor wondering what's actually attcking you isn't the greatest of ideas.
Anyway, pointless digression over, just wanted to say thanks for the list of games I'm now going to grab.
The Path
Penumbra
Call of Cthulhu
Cryosastis
P.S
Is Eternal Darkness purchasable on the wii? And it so it is playable without a pad?
I also think games are a lot like films, best watched/played in the dark by oneself. The feeling that the setting creates can only highten the fear/intensity of a good game. Trying to play Silent Hill/Fatal Frame in the middle of the day with sunlight streaming on your monitor wondering what's actually attcking you isn't the greatest of ideas.
Anyway, pointless digression over, just wanted to say thanks for the list of games I'm now going to grab.
The Path
Penumbra
Call of Cthulhu
Cryosastis
P.S
Is Eternal Darkness purchasable on the wii? And it so it is playable without a pad?
Darn....That requires effort :/Lukeje said:
It seems to be a very popular choice on this thread though, is it worth going through all the effort of finding/buying an old gamecube pad and memory card to play it? I mean, it was clearly good at the time, but is it still good now?
although they are fairly fun wrestling games sweaty men in underwear grabbing each other *shudders* its not right
It has elements of psychological horror but I never meant to claim it was a full blown psycholgical horror game I suppose...tellmeimaninja said:
FEAR isn't that scary. No, what it is is immersive. I found myself continously looking forward to the next horror sequence instead of dreading it like I sould have.tellmeimaninja said:
FEARs horror is more subtle and it is used to tell a story. Dead Space is shallow Boo scares.
Everyone here is more or less saying FEAR is generic which I find bothersome.
The experience of the game is at least deep.
Are you sure you like Psychological Horror or do you like Thriller Horror?WayOutThere said:
Thriller stands as its own genre but it overlaps with horror. These tend to have a lot of "things jump out at you and say 'boo'" kinds of effects. Think of Nightmare on Elmstreet, Pumpkinhead, etc and games like Left 4 Dead. Slasher flicks are thriller types but there are enough of them that they earned their own subgenre of horror.
http://horror.fictionfactor.com/articles/subgenre.html
Psychological horror has a twisting-turning mind trip that leaves you guessing and can slowly creep you out. Among the top psychological horror films are Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, The Ring, and Secret Window. In games it would be things like Myst, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, Clock Tower, and Alan Wake.
http://www.alternativereel.com/includes/top-ten/display_review.php?id=00027
But if you really are looking for psychological, Eternal Darkness is one of the best, the point of the 4th wall is you start to wonder if it is the game or if it is real (which is at the core of psychological horror)! Next I would say Clock Tower and Fatal Frame. After that, Myst and Call of Cthulhu... if you can get through the whole thing, it has a harsh learning curve.
The upcoming Alan Wake is based off of a Stephen King tale and promises to be VERY good psychological horror. It is similar to The Dark Half. There are no monsters. There is a horror author who finds that the scenes from his stories are being enacted in real life in a small town. He slowly begins to suspect that he himself may be the murderer...who does it in his sleep. Or is it someone trying to convince him that he is the killer? He has to solve it before he goes insane.
I guess the easiest breakdown of horror is this:
Psychological: Messes with your head and makes it hard to sleep at night (think of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" or "The Sixth Sense".)
Suspense: Makes you bite your nails and wonder when the really bad stuff is going to happen and to whom. I'd put "The Grudge" in this category. (Wondering if the girl is stepping into water or blood is pretty nail biting.)
Thriller: Makes you jump.
Clock Tower mixes Thriller and Psychological and might be right up your alley. You AREN'T a soldier or arcane master or anything like that. You are an average person fleeing from a killer. The first one was good, if you can survive the wonky controls. I've played it and watched others play it. It is GREAT at lulling you into a false sense of security and then nailing you with a chase scene. And as a normal person, you have to use whatever is at hand to escape! Throw a mop handle, escape out a window, and once in awhile you might get something like mace to use. You are the prey and it REALLY revs up your heart! So try that one out or the sequels and see what you think.
Well, just bought it off Ebay for 4 quid. Now to get hold of a bloody controller and memory card :/Gyrefalcon said:
Also back on topic, I tried 'The path' recently as it was supposed to be a good indie horror game, I must say I was left sorely disapointed. Was looking forward to that but I was let down.
Rhythm said:Gyrefalcon said:Rhythm said:Lukeje said:Hmm, I hadn't heard of that one. Thanks for the heads up on it. I'm waiting for Alan Wake and Thief 4. Oh-you might like the horror elements in Thief 3! Not a true horror game but it becomes a good one by the end!Rhythm said:
Yeah, I didn't really think about my OP before I wrote it. My edit was also a confused and ill-concieved patch. Is FEAR psychological? No, not really. It mostly not thriller horror though, more it was suspence.Gyrefalcon said:
Also, I'm no fan of thriller horror. I played Dead Space and the "boo" scares were detrimental to the experience for me. Also, I do not go to see movies like this.
Edit: In Dead Space, I did appriciate that the AI was smart enough to play dead but that's besides the point.
Something about FEAR most certainly is underappricated though. I've been trying to understand what that something is but I'm getting plain tired of thinking about it.
About Eternal Darkness I can kind of see what you are talking about but I'm unconvinced. How is it that these effects can work so well at that? I don't know.
Well, I will surely try the game eventually and see for myself.
Thanks for your interesting post.